SON #1 (age 10) - He has finished several series recently and is not into another right now.

The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch (he blew through all five of these in about 2 weeks!)

The Zombie Chasers series by John Kloepfer (will read #3 when it is available at our library)

The Talent Thief by Alex Williams (he says this is good but he is not devouring it... I grabbed it at the library because it had an eye-catching cover!)

DAUGHTER (age 8) -

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (I just finished reading this to her and we both enjoyed it.)

Junie B., First Grader: Cheater Pants (she has read several in this series recently to finish her eight books for the Barnes and Noble Summer reading challenge. Now if she would just finish her chores we could go to the mall and pick up her free book!)

A few things I have learned recently, and yes, I have been focusing on learning a little more about Twitter!1. How to shorten links to a blog post to put into your tweet. You can go here to a site called Bitly and shorten your link so there is actually room to write more than just the link in your tweet. Yes, I'm sure most of you already know this, but I had to look it up!

2. Add a Follow Me button to your blog. If you would like to add a basic "Follow Me" button to your blog go here in Twitter. I selected the "follow" and then "user name" options. This will bring up a "Preview and Code" section and you will want to copy the code to put on your blog. In your Blogger account go to the layout page of your blog and select "Add a Gadget" and then "HTML/Java Script." Add and title and copy the code into the "Content" section. Click save and then drag your new gadget to where you want it on the sidebar.On Writing:

Being a new writer there are a lot of writing terms I come across that I haven't heard before. I have just been writing off the cuff, which is OK for now, OK for a first draft, but I know there will be a lot to go back and fix.

1. Beats. I have read one book on self-editing with the brilliant idea that if I learned about all the things I would do wrong upfront then I could do it right the first time through. LOL! The big thing I took from that book was about using beats to enhance dialog. There is a good article here at Writing Fiction @ suite 101 which says "Physical descriptions, or beats, and active sentences can show a reader the intent behind a writer's dialogue."

So intead of simply writing: "What did you do?" Mrs. Dixon said.

You could write:"What did you do?" Mrs. Dixon frowned at Tyler and put her hands on her hips.

In the second example you get a better understanding that Tyler did something naughty and is probably about to get in trouble.

------------------------------

What also like about using beats is that instead of always using a standard attribution like "he said" or "she said" to tell the reader who is speaking, you can show it though action. This is especially useful when there are more than two people in the conversation.

So instead of: "What do you want to do tonight girls?" Sarah asked. "Oh, I don't know." Betty said. "Well, we could go to the new Spiderman movie." Megan said.

You could use beats like this: Sarah was lounging on the couch reading a new book. She paused and looked up at her roommates. "What do you want to do tonight girls?" she asked. "Oh, I don't know." Betty said. Megan had just finished flipping through the entertainment section of the paper. "Well, we could go see the new Spiderman movie."

I know these are not the most sophisticated examples, but it's a start in the right direction I think. Of course there is a lot more to beats, but these are the most useful stategies that fit what I am working on.

2. Pacing. Another word I keep hearing is pacing. I really haven't known what that is all about until today when I finally decided to look it up. I found a good article at Fiction Facter here, which describes pacing as "the rhythm of the novel, of the chapters and scenes and paragraphs and sentences. It's also the rate at which the reader reads, the speed at which novel events occur and unfold. It's using specific word choices and sentence structure - scene, chapter and novel structure - to tap the emotions of the reader so that the reader feels what the writer wants the reader to feel at any given time during the story."

I like the opening of the article:
For a moment, let's pretend that the words we write on the page are sound. If all the sounds are the same, then we have monotone. Monotone puts us to sleep, bores us to tears, turns us off - and if it goes on for any length of time - ticks us off."

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Step
Two: Dust off those old sappy journals or high school
notebooks filled with bad poetry.*

Step
Three: Skim through them until you find something share-worthy.

Step
Four: On June 21 POST IT on your blog.

Optional: We all love seeing old photos, so if you
have one lying around of you as a teen, post that, too.

We'll all be hopping
around peeking into each others private teenage lives on June 21. Can you
imagine a better way to spend the first day of summer?

*Didn't write in a
journal or compose poetry as a teenager? Have no fear! Counterfeit entries are
welcome! Pretend you're a teenager and write whatever you feel. Just make sure
you're using your teenage voice.

And if you're still a
teenager, hey, you're going to basically rock this blog hop.

Sign up below!

----------------------------------------------

I wasn't sure about this bloghop when I first read about it. Sure I wrote a
lot of papers for school, maybe a poem here or there, but nothing I would say
was very interesting. I didn't feel like making anything up, so before adding
my name to the list I wanted to find something I could use. I have a trunk
where I keep a bunch of old school-related papers (dating back to 1st grade!)
so I asked my husband to unearth it and started to dig. It took a good chunk of
time to wade through the boring term papers, but I found a gem.

This particular assignment was titled Story Quiz, and I think it was from my
senior year in high school. The idea, I'm guessing, was to take our 20
vocabulary words and use them in a story. My teacher's words at the top were as
follows. "Whew! This is a mini-series! You earned the A- for using your
words appropriately, but it is necessary to write so long a piece to utilize 20
words?"

I typed my hand-written story into Word today and it came in at 1,503 words!

I won't put the entire story in this blog post, but here is a summary and
then I will add a few excerpts that had me laughing out loud. I hope you find
them amusing as well. I have kept all the awful punctuation and grammar intact. And remember, I had to use specific vocabulary words which
will be highlighted in red.

Summary: Kim and Karlee are best friends. Kim comes over to Karlee's house
where Tony (Karlee's boyfriend) is bringing Ferris (his cousin, a blind date
for Kim) and they are all going to a U2 concert. Can you say 1980's! Well, this
would have been 1990 or 1991, but still.

A couple interesting things to note: My husband's name is Tony. In this
story Tony drives a 1966 mustang and my husband owns a 1967 camaro.
Foreshadowing of my life to come?

--------------------------------------------

Excerpt #1 - Kim has just arrived in Karlee's room.

“You
know, your room is a mess.”

“I
know, I know. Don’t think my mom doesn’t tell me that every day.” They looked
at each other and started giggling, but the unbridled
excitement got the best of them and they started cracking up.

Karlee
stood up and twirled around. “How do I look, dahling?” Kim had to admit she did
look good.

“Simply
perfect, dahling. Your clothes are cool, each and every hair on your head is in
place and your make-up has been applied with the most circumspect
and delicate touch as usual.”

“Well…
I really want to look good for Tony. You know how much I like him.”

“Yeah!”

“What
about Ferris?”

“What
about him?”

“Aren’t
you just dying waiting to see him? Tony said he was pretty easy on the eyes.”

“Yeah,
I know. I have to confess I am curious, but I didn’t want to seem too anxious.
You can tell by my clothes. It doesn’t look bad, but it’s only an old pair of
jeans and a rugby I salvaged from a bag of my
brother’s old clothes. And I can relinquish the
idea of getting new clothes this fall.”

“Oh,
I know. Having an older sister and brother who grow out of clothes is the pits.”

“How
would you know? You are the oldest.”

“OK,
OK, but you do look good.”

“Thanks.”

They
went downstairs to wait and nearly collided with Karlee’s mom.

“Oh,
hello girls. All set?”

“Yes,
mom.”

“Yes,
Mrs. Mitchell.”

It was
coming, they knew it. The speech. Each girl tried to escape before it hit them,
but…

“Wait
one second my two favorite teenagers.” She started to admonish
them. “Now, no drugs, alcohol and please be careful and stick together. I don’t
want you coming home telling me that you lost more than your hearing.(Yeah, I have no idea where this line came from.) And
remember you are to be home by one. Kim, you’ll be sleeping over tonight. Am I
correct?”

--------------------------------------------

Excerpt #2 - The boys have just pulled up in the car. My teacher wrote "Isn't this a rather ominous vision?" Yes, it is... darn vocabulary words!

Just
then they heard a car and whirled around to the window. A slick 1966 mustang
pulled up and two figures stepped out on the shadows of the car like brigands stepping out of the woods to attack their
next victims.

Karlee
sighed. “Look how handsome Tony is.”

Kim
ran her eyes over her own date, Ferris. He was tall, and well built, maybe a
little cumbersome looking. He had soft dirty
blonde hair and deep blue eyes.

“Not
too bad for a blind date, hunh?”

“What?”
Karlee was still staring at Tony.

“Ferris,
remember him, my date.”

“Oh,
yeah he is pretty good looking, just like Tony said.”

The
doorbell rang and Karlee immediately wished it hadn’t. It sounded like a sudden
spasmodic firing or guns. Her family really
needed to get it fixed, along with everything else in the house. But it got
them to the door just the same.

The
two girls hurried to the door and attempted to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.
What a dilemma.

“Great, we’re
standing here trying to open a locked door,” announced Kim.

-------------------------------------------

There are some other funny lines like the news on the radio talking about the Navy commandeering (yes, another vocabulary work) the Love Boat. And then finally, 1,500 words later they have arrived at the concert hall. I'm sure my teacher was very relieved to have it all come to an end!

And as an extra special bonus, I have included a self-portrait from one of my art classes, freshman year of college. Enjoy! Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, June 18, 2012

1. In Blogger, if you would like to follow a non-Blogger blog, you can. Now this may not be news to some people, but I was getting frustrated with blogs that did not have a "follow-me" button or running across blogs on different platforms that I wanted to follow. When you are on the Blogger home screen, all you have to do is click on the "ADD" button above the "All blogs" link, paste the url from the blog you want to follow, click on "+ Add" next to where you have pasted the url and click the "Follow" button at the bottom. Easy Peasy!

2. Not everyone has an e-mail connected to their blog account. So when I try to reply to a comment via e-mail sometimes it goes to a noreply-comment@blogger.com address. I have sent many e-mails to this address before I realized I should check first. So if you would like to add an e-mail to your account here is what you need to do.

Go to Dashboard

Go to Edit Profile

Look in Privacy section

Check the box that says "show my email address"

Go to Identity section, and enter an email address

Click Save Profile

I got this information from Julie Musil's blog. If you would like to see that info first hand, see her post here.

Blog Awards

A few blog awards have come my way in the past month.

1. The Liebster Blog Award was given to me by Andrea Teagan at The Enchanted Writer. Head on over to her blog to see her current series on writing a Book in a Month! The German translation of liebster is favorite or dearest, so thanks so much Andrea!

The 'rules' of the award are the following:

Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on
your blog.

Link back to the blogger who
presented the award to you.

Copy and paste the blog award
on your blog.

Present the Liebster Blog
Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less.

Let them know they have been
chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

And here are the blogs I feel deserve this award!

Barbara Ann Watson - Barbara has great MMGM (Marvelous Middle Grade Monday) posts and has just launched a Professional Editing Service business. And the fact that we share the same middle name has nothing to do with her being #1 on my list! :-)

Middle Grade Mafioso - Another frequent MMGM poster, Michael just passed 100 followers and had a week-long celebration on his blog. The best thing about Michael's blog is his "godfather-themed" humor. Fun stuff!

The Art of Infiltration - Kimberly has great posts on "The Contest Circuit" and has a contest underway herself with a giveaway for SIGNED copies of NYT best selling author Veronica Roth's INSURGENT
and Elizabeth Norris's UNRAVELING.

S.P. Bowers - Another blog that just passed 100 followers - YAY! And anyone who celebrates with ice cream and Oreos is okay by me!

Scribbles From Jenn - Jenn is participating in JuNoWriMo so head on over an offer your encouragement as she pushes through the final two weeks! Jenn also writes MG... do you see a pattern here? I love MG! :-)

2. Laura at My Baffling Brain gave me the One Lovely Blogger Award, about a month ago! Thank you Laura! The award calls for answering some questions. I am going to opt out of passing the award on to more bloggers today as I have already listed some of my favorite blogs above.

What is your favorite song? I enjoy most songs by Nickleback, and you just can't beat James Taylor. Yes, my taste is all over the place!

What is your favorite dessert? Ice cream with home made chocolate sauce is a frequent dessert in our house, but I love a creamy piece of cheesecake!

When you are upset, what do you do? I cry. Luckily I don't get upset too often.

What is your favorite pet? Our only pet is a cat, who stays hidden all day and then comes out at night (after the kids are in bed) and wants attention. She doesn't always get it. Last night I heard her cough up a hairball but still haven't found it, so she is not on my favorite list right now!

What do you prefer to wear: black or white? I would have to say black.

What is your biggest fear? That something will prevent me from taking care of my kids properly.

What is your attitude mostly? I am a pretty low-key person. My attitude is usually a good one, but it would probably be hard to tell.

What is perfection to you? My definition of perfection has changed since having kids. I am a perfectionist for sure, but I have had to loosen my expectations a bit with chores and projects that I do with the kids. The goal/end result has to be within their age-appropriate abilities.

What is your guilty pleasure? Eating a couple bites of ice cream when the kids aren't looking!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

For those of you who read my interview with Krista Van Dolzer, you may notice a pattern starting here. I am fascinated with on-line writing contests! And I can't even take part in them because I don't have a completed (and polished) manuscript. But it is tons of fun watching them unfold and then reading all the entries. Krista Van Dolzer has a great post on Why You Should Enter Blog Contests with a lot of great points that wouldn't even have crossed my mind.

Most of the questions I asked here were the same as the last interview and I think it is iteresting to see the the answers from another set of perspectives. Thank you to Katrinz Lantz, Lindsay Scott (who writes as Isabella Morgan,) and
Michelle McLean from Operation Awesome who helped me out with this fun interview.

Operation Awesome hosts The Mystery Agent contests which run almost every month on the first of the month. They publish a "Heads Up" post the day before so there is no confusion on the specifics and all entries are done within the comments section once the contest post goes live. Read on to find out all about their "operation!"

1. When did you start blogging and what was your initial
purpose/reason?

Michelle: I
came in late to the party so I'll let you guys answer this one :) though I remember
when I joined you guys seemed very geared toward paying it forward - sharing
your journeys while trying to help other writers through theirs. Paying it
forward has always been a big theme of the OA I think.

Katrina: We
started the blog in September 2011. It was Kristal's idea, and I thought it'd
be good for building our online presence, which we're always hearing about from
agents. We also wanted to share with other writers, talk about writing and new
books we love. That's been one of the most fun things for me. That and the MA
contests, of course.

Lindsay: The
reason we started blogging as a group was to help other writers and give back
to the writing community.

2. Why did you decide to start having writing
contests?

Katrina: I'd
really enjoyed similar contests at other blogs, especially the Secret Agent
contests at Miss Snark's First Victim. After having some very friendly
interactions with a couple awesome agents, I realized that they really are
there to help writers get published, not just to mock ridiculous queries. :)
Our M.A. contests give us and our readers an opportunity to get to know these
nice agents, and gives the agents an opportunity to specify exactly what
they're looking for so (we hope) their inboxes get flooded with the right stuff
rather than the wrong stuff.

Michelle: We’ve
always loved these types of contests on other blogs (like Miss Snark’s First
Victim) and since our main mission is to help writers along their journey, it
seemed natural for us to help them try to connect with agents. They also give
us a chance to get to know agents better.

3. Was your blog already popular, and how did you
promote the contests?

Michelle: We’ve
slowly built our readership over the last year or so. We don’t require contest
participants to be followers, but I think the contests have helped spread the
word about us. To promote, we just do the usual – tweet, blog, Facebook, etc.

Katrina: We had
no followers in August before our September launch date, so it's been fun to
celebrate each milestone as a group blog as we've been able to reach more writers
with our contests and readers with our book love. Twitter was a very effective
promotional tool for the contests, like Michelle already said. It's so easy to
connect with other writers that way. It helped having six of us at once
tweeting about it. We also posted about the contests at popular writing forums
to spread the word even faster.

4. How do you approach/connect with the agents you
wish to include in the contests?

Michelle: We’ll
often approach newer agents, because they are the ones who are actively
building their lists. And we’ve asked agents we have personal experience with
(one month we had my former agent, for example). We just send them an email and
ask if they’d like to participate :) We’ve had a great response!

Lindsay: We
usually send an email to the agent to ask if the contest is something they'd be
interested in taking part.

5. Have you ever run into any problems or
disgruntled contestants, and how do you handle this?

Lindsay: Not as
yet.

Michelle: Nothing
too terribly bad yet. One or two that might disagree with our definition of a
one-line pitch, or people being upset about when the post goes live (we’ve
tried to alleviate this by posting in advance when it will go up, but we’ve had
a couple glitches, and really, you can’t make everyone happy). For the most
part we haven’t had any problems.

Katrina: We're
pretty accommodating when people have trouble with blogger. No system is fool
proof. :)

6. Are there any liability issues when running
contests?

Michelle: Hopefully not :) Since we aren’t
offering any products or guaranteed prizes and since we don’t require anything
for people to enter (such as following our blog or donations, etc), there
aren’t any liability issues that we are aware of. We do try to state the rules very
clearly, keep things as simple as possible, and make sure everyone knows up
front what is expected and what potential prizes are.

7. How fast do the contests fill up?

Lindsay: It can
be anything from minutes to hours.

Michelle: The
first 40 or so entries usually happen very quickly. The last contest we had,
the first 40 went in 10 minutes. Because the comment number doesn’t always
match up with how many qualifying entries we have, the last few entries tend to
take a bit longer because people will see 52 comments and assume we are full.
But, with our last contest we had 50 entries within about 25 minutes.

Katrina: Even the
very first contest was filled within the day. Writers love contests! And we
love hosting them. :)

8. The way
your Mystery Agent contests are set up, contestants enter via the comments
section of the blog post. This doesn't allow for any comments from other
contestants/readers. Did you set it up this way for a reason?

Michelle: Yes. We
aren’t running the contest so other readers can critique the pitches. The
pitches are only listed as an entry for the mystery agent. It’s scary enough
posting your pitch for an agent to see, let alone posting it and having a ton
of people critiquing it. We just wanted to run these contests to give people an
opportunity to hook up with an agent, not for critiques. Having people put them
in the comments is the fastest, easiest way for people to enter.

Lindsay: I think
that it just helps to keep things central to the blog. It also means that all
the OA ladies can see how the contest is filling up at the same time (rather
than email/spreadsheets which one person would have to keep track of).

Katrina: It
really does keep it simple, and some of our Mystery Agents like to follow along
with the contest by watching the blog comments fill up.

9. With a group blog I'm sure the workload is able
to be spread out. Does this make running the contests (almost
once-a-month) more manageable? Does each person have certain
responsibilities or do you rotate who runs the contest each month?

Lindsay: We all
pitch in to help. Usually there's one or two of us able to keep an eye on the
blog to count the entries/check they are all following the rules. We don't
rotate who runs the contest each month (since one of us is usually online with
the various time zones we live in), but we do keep as organized as possible. We
have a list of which OA member has contacted an agent/who it is/if the agent
has agreed/the month the agent is taking part etc.

Michelle: Whoever
contacts the agent is in charge of getting the post up and handling
communication with the agent regarding the entries, the reveal interview, etc.
We sort of take turns doing that although it’s not really scheduled. Whoever is
available that day will help keep an eye on things so we can get the contest
closed down as soon as we hit our quota and to help check entries to make sure
they are following the rules.

10. Contests seem like such a fun way to find an
agent. How many success stories can you attribute to your blog?

Katrina: Our Mystery Agents tab across the top of the blog includes success stories for
those who'd like to find out which pitches really nailed it. Sometimes success
meant finding an agent or selling a book, but most of the time these contests
have helped winners get more requests and personal feedback.

11. I’m sure the success stories are rewarding for
you, as well as for the writer and agent who found each other, but what
other part of hosting contests do you find most rewarding?

Lindsay: I love
the fact that, in a small way, we are helping connect other writers with
agents. Contests help gain experience. Pitching is something you learn to do.
Every contest you enter, winner or not, helps hone that part of the craft. And
knowing we've played a tiny part in the writing journey is wonderful.

Michelle: We
love reading all the pitches. There are some really good ones and a lot of
stories we’d really love to read! Really, helping our readers with posts on
pitching and reading all the pitches helps us with our own pitches.

Katrina: Ditto what Lindsay and
Michelle said. Pitching takes practice, but it really helps to see successful
examples. Sometimes it surprises me which pitches an agent will pick over
others, but I always learn something when I'm paying close attention. I
recommend our readers pay attention to these things, too. It can really help
you to get a grasp for what a particular agent craves. That's why we post the
contest link and reveal post on the Mystery Agents tab
so you can compare the two. And, like I said earlier, I really love getting to
know the agents. They're all book lovers like us! And all our M.A.'s are super
nice.

12. What tips do you have for someone who would like
to host contests on his/her blog?

Lindsay: Be as
organized as you can.

Don't be afraid of approaching agents to take part.

Michelle: Make
sure you have the rules very clearly spelled out. Give people a heads up at
least a week in advance so they know it’s coming and they can prepare their entry
(it takes time to get those entries polished!). Above all, keep it as simple as
you can. Running contests can get complicated, so the easier you can make it on
yourself and your followers, the better.

Katrina: I second
Lindsay's comment about not being afraid to contact an agent. I've only had one
bad experience contacting an agent for the contest, and that person was just a
Grouchy McGrouchikins. For the most part, agents are very receptive to
interviews and contests, as long as you keep it organized and make it as easy as
possible for them (because choosing from all those awesome pitches can be
tricky!). Make sure all they have to do is pick the winner and you handle the
rest.

Monday, June 11, 2012

This blogfest is being hosted by Elana Johnson in celebration of the release of her YA novel Surrender. I look forward to hopping around and reading as many as time permits!

Here are the specifics!

All you have to do is blog about a time you
didn't surrender.Trained for a marathon?
Queried agents? Had to study for an entrance exam? I'm looking for inspirational
stories that you have experienced. Hard things you've accomplished because you
didn't give up. I want to be inspired by you!

Anyone who blogs this week for the theme can enter to
win one of three $15 B&N gift cards. Everyone who blogs
this week will receive a SURRENDER swag package.

Don’t blog? Put the cover of Surrender up on your FB
wall, or pin it on Pinterest, or change your twitter avatar to the cover. Use
the words “Never Surrender” somewhere to go with the picture, and link back to
this post.

Sign up in this form to make sure you get the swag package.
Elana will visit each blog to read your inspirational "never surrender" moments.
Sign your blog up to participate in the Never Surrender blogfest linklist
below.

---------------------------------------------------------

And here is my story.

It is true that you must walk before you can run. In October 2006 I completed the Nike Women's Marathon. But I didn't wake up the morning of and decide to go run a big race. I put a plan in place, gathered a support group, and trained hard for many, many months.

1. Making the commitment. I ran my marathon with an awesome organization called Team in Training, which is part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I went to a meeting and decided to sign up for the half-marathon . . . the full 26.2 miles seemed way too hard at the time. But I am a very competitive person and I couldn't bear the thought of other people running an entire marathon while I "gave up" at the half-way point (I totally don't consider running a half-marathon giving up as 13.1 miles is quite an accomplishment as well. This is just how I felt at the time.) So I committed to run all 26.2 of those miles. I also committed to raising money to help support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a requirement when participating in an event through Team in Training.

2. Putting a plan in place. This was fairly easy because I was training with an organization. They gave us a sample schedule and organized group runs every Saturday morning. I stuck to the schedule like glue, running or cross-training 6-7 days-a-week for five months.

3. Gathering a support system. I had the support of Team in Training and the Saturday morning runs to keep me accountable. But without the support of my husband and his parents I could never have done this. I woke up at 5am and completed the short 5-mile, mid-week runs on my own. But most Saturdays my husband joined me for the long runs. That meant the kids were dropped off at my in-laws on Friday night so we could get up early and go. Even though my husband complained about the slow-pace, I loved having him there with me! We didn't talk much on the runs but it was great together time.

Team in Training gives you the tools to set up a fund raising web site and through that I was able to raise most of the money I needed to contribute to the event, a portion of which went towards airfare and hotel accommodations. It was exciting to tell people about my plan to run the marathon and heart-warming to see the donations start coming in. It was very motivating to know my friends and family were behind me as well, supporting me with their cheerleading and donations.

4. Train hard and don't give up! That first group run was tough! Five miles of huffing and puffing, but I made it. Getting up at 5am was tough! But it felt good to get my workout done before breakfast. The ice baths (yes this means dumping a bunch of ice in an already cold tub of water and then getting in for 10 minutes) after the long runs were REALLY tough! But I was rarely sore (just very tired) and I can officially add the title of Crazy Woman to my name. Cross-training was tough! I chose to do spinning classes, which are great for endurance and leg strength, but a type of exercise I have always found hard. But I pushed through these classes because I knew I would come out a better runner for it. Making a 5-month commitment was tough! I think I missed only one workout over the entire 5-month period due to a head cold. But I stuck with it because I am the type of person who, if I start missing a workout here or there, will make *very good* excuses why it is OK to miss more.

I didn't give up! And I can say without a doubt, after my wedding and giving birth to three kids, running this marathon has been the most exciting and memorable experience in my life so far. Not only that, I am proud of myself for sticking with it and accomplishing my goal.

During one of the keynotes' speech at a recent writing conference it dawned on me that there are lots of similarities between my marathon experience and the writing process. I don't think it takes a genius to see the parallels. Hopefully I can be inspired by my own story and buckle down and finish my 1st draft. My main problem with writing is sticking to the "training schedule." I sit down to write and there are so many distractions on my computer (like fun blogfests - ha!) I need to make a time for writing and do nothing else. Period.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

I wasn't too sure about this one, but I made my husband unearth the trunk that holds all my school work (from elementary through college!) and found a few gems. I'll even throw in an added bonus of a lovely self-portrait I made during my first year of college!

Step Two: Dust off
those old sappy journals or high school notebooks filled with
bad poetry.*

Step Three: Skim
through them until you find something share-worthy.

Step Four: On June
21 POST IT on your blog.

Optional: We all love seeing old photos, so if you
have one lying around of you as a teen, post that, too.

We'll all be
hopping around peeking into each others private teenage lives on June 21. Can
you imagine a better way to spend the first day of summer?

*Didn't write in a
journal or compose poetry as a teenager? Have no fear! Counterfeit entries are
welcome! Pretend you're a teenager and write whatever you feel. Just make sure
you're using your teenage voice.

And if you're still
a teenager, hey, you're going to basically rock this blog hop.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

I didn't add my name to the linky because I totally read the instructions wrong. The entry was supposed to be a pitch for a cozy mystery and it was supposed to be as crazy an idea as you could come up with. I thought it was supposed to be in flash format and I totally missed the crazy (yes I know it was in the title) part. And finally the word count. Since I didn't follow any of the other rules I didn't go back and cut mine down to the 150-250 they asked for (which I can now see works for a short pitch) so my "short" blurb came in at 375 words.

See below for the info on Quilt or Innocence, the first book in a new cozy mystery series by Elizabeth Craig. I am also making this post because Elizabeth's Mystery Writing is Murder blog looks like a great resource for writers. She has gone both the traditional and self-publishing routes and had success in each. Hart Johnson (pen name Alyse Carlson) was also in on this blogfest, and her first book The Azalea Assuslt released yesterday. She blogs at Confessions of a Watery Tart.

I must confess that I had never heard the term cozy mystery before, and after reading the definition realized I have only ever read one book that falls into this category. They sound like fun books though so I will put one on my list to read in the near future. As I have told my son recently we all need a little variety in our reading choices!

Here is what I came up with. I know this doesn't fall into any category of childrens' writing, but I thought it was an interesting challenge and any writing is good practice!

Sally
stuck a finger under the apron of the crab and yanked it off. She flipped it
over and removed the top shell with the ease of someone who had done it before.
Then she moved onto the gills and stomach, placed the cleaned crab on a plate
and threw a metal cracker on the side.

“Order
up Tom!” Sally yelled out to the front.

Situated
in a small town on the Chesapeake River, the restaurant was Sally’s baby. She
had opened just one year ago, after finishing her Master’s degree at the
University of Maryland. She was young and educated but said “to heck with it”
and moved home to Easton. Her best friend had followed her home and together
they birthed The Cracked Claw.

The
tight-knit community had welcomed them with open arms, and soon a group of
regulars had also become their good friends. On Thursday nights after closing,
they stayed late and played cards, gossiped and drank a few beers.

“I
said, order up Tom!”

Sally
didn’t like to keep her customers waiting and this particular evening was especially
busy. Not a great night for one of her cooks to go AWOL, but Sally always
filled in where she was needed and made sure things were running smoothly.

After
wiping her hands and straightening her just-snug-enough shirt, Sally started
towards the door. Preparing the crabs was hot, dirty work and if she had to go
out front she wanted to look halfway presentable.

Just
then the door burst open and Tom came in with a worried look on his face. She
and Tom had been friends since their first year of college and Sally knew this was
an expression she should take seriously.

“Tom,
what’s wrong?” Sally asked.

“Well
Miss,” a low voice drawled from behind Tom. “We could start with the dead body someone
found floating in the water by your dock.”

Sally’s
mouth dropped open. Nothing came out so she closed it back up.

Detective
Snow introduced himself and continued. “Each finger was snapped in half and a
crab cracker with your prints all over it was shoved down his . . .”

Quilt or InnocenceBeatrice has a lot of gossip to catch up
on—especially with the Patchwork Cottage quilt shop about to close. It seems
that Judith, the landlord everyone loves to hate, wants to raise the rent,
despite being a quilter herself… But when Judith is found dead, the harmless
gossip becomes an intricate patchwork of mischievous motives. And it’s up to
Beatrice’s expert eye to decipher the pattern and catch the killer, before her
life gets sewn up for good.

Elizabeth Spann Craig: Elizabeth
writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin/Berkley (as Riley Adams), the
Southern Quilting mysteries (2012) for Penguin/NAL, and the Myrtle Clover series
for Midnight Ink. She blogs daily at Mystery Writing is Murder, which was named
by Writer's Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers for 2010 and
2011.

As the mother of two, Elizabeth writes on the run as she juggles
duties as Girl Scout leader, referees play dates, drives carpools, and is
dragged along as a hostage/chaperone on field trips.

The Azalea AssaultCam Harris loves her job as public relations
manager for the Roanoke Garden Society. It allows her to combine her three
loves, spinning the press, showing off her favorite town, and promoting her
favorite activity. She's just achieved a huge coup by enlisting Garden
Delights, the country's premiere gardening magazine, to feature the
exquisite garden of RGS founder, Neil Patrick. She's even managed to enlist
world-famous photographer Jean-Jacques Georges. Unfortunately, Jean-Jacques is a
first-rate cad—insulting the RGS members and gardening, goosing every woman in
the room, and drinking like a lush. It is hardly a surprise when he turns up
dead. But when Cam's brother-in-law is accused and her sister begs her to solve
the crime, that is when things really get prickly.

Alyse Carlson:
Alyse Carlson is the pen name for Hart Johnson who writes books from her
bathtub. By day she is an academic researcher at a large midwestern university.
She lives with her husband, two teenage children and two fur balls. The dust
bunnies don't count. This will be her first published
book.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

I first heard about the Sasquatch Award this past school year when my son had the opportunity to earn a special pizza party if he read, and passed an AR test for, each book nominated for the award. These are all middle grade books targeted for grades three through six. There were a couple titles in the mix that he had no interest in reading so he didn't complete the challenge. Maybe he would have tried harder if the prize had been more enticing? Maybe this year I will put up my own prize if he finishes. Maybe this year I will read them right along with him! This is such a great way to introduce kids to a wider variety of books, and who knows, they might actually love a few of them.

-----------------------------------------

Okay. I asked my son what would motivate him to read all the Sasquatch award nominees and he said $100. I will have to run this one by my husband.

"This
committee meets in the early spring, in Ellensburg. We each bring our pile of
book nominations with us. We solicit nominations from teachers, students, a few
book shop owners and other librarians. We constantly try to focus on titles that
children like and want to read while continually discussing the merits of
individual titles in a series such as Redwall, American Girl, etc.

The
actual process is a round robin in which each member presents their best title.
We do this about three times around or until everyone feels that have presented
the titles that have been most favored in their region. At this point we start
discussing various titles, balance of male and female focus, ethnic diversity,
and a variety of reading levels ranging from the earliest chapter book reader on
up. One year we decided to include one picture book for older students (Passage
to Freedom) as well as an autobiographical title (Basher Five-Two). I guess we
then trust our instincts and negotiate the final list."

Friday, June 1, 2012

Isn't this a cool cover design? I love the hauting image and I'm a sucker for cool font arrangement. I like how the title is so prominent and still looks great within the overall design. And the book sounds thrilling as well (read more below)... I will definitely be looking for it next year. Check out Kim's full post over (with a giveaway!) on her blog.

Jade loves the
house she's just moved into with her family. She doesn't even mind being the new
girl at the high school: It's a fresh start, and there's that one guy with the
dreamy blue eyes. . . . But then things begin happening. Strange, otherworldly
things. Jade's little brother claims to see a glimmering girl in his room.
Jade's jewelry gets moved around, as if by an invisible hand. Kids at school
whisper behind her back like they know something she doesn't.

Soon, Jade must face an impossible fact: that
her perfect house is haunted. Haunted by a ghost who's seeking not just
vengeance, but the truth. The ghost of a girl who ruled Jade's school -- until
her untimely death last year. It's up to Jade to put the pieces together before
her own life is at stake. As Jade investigates the mystery, she discovers that
her new friends in town have more than a few deep, dark secrets. But is one of
them a murderer?

-------------------------------------------------------

Kim is also the author of the new middle grade series Sleuth or Dare (from Scholastic, May 2012, June 2102 and July 2012). In her words, "These are middle grade books for ages 8-12. They have mystery, suspense, humor,
and friendship drama." The second book in the series Sleuth or Dare #2: Sleepover Stakeout, releases today!

After reading about Kim in an interview over on the Literary Rambles blog, I found her book Sleuth or Dare: Partners in Crime at the book fair for my kids' school. I thought to myself "Cool, I *know* this author!" Since I am in the process of writing a MG Chapter Book series I grabbed this for my own personal reading - sorry 8-year-old daughter, you will have to wait until I am done with it! I e-mailed Kim with a few new writer questions last week and wouldn't you know, she had responded twice within one day! She is so nice (and quick on her computer) to have answered my quirky questions and she definitely has a new follower of her work. Thanks Kim!

Check out this fun series for yourself and your kids. You won't be dissappointed!

About Me

I am a SAHM to three young kids. I started this blog to keep track of my progress on writing for children, but have expanded it to include anything created by me - photography, scrapbooks, art made with my kids, and knitted or crocheted projects. Therefore I have dubbed myself a Creative-in-Training. Looking forward to meeting you!